No small sacrifice

It's been months of terror in Holy Land.  Murder after horrific murder, mothers, fathers, and children have been targeted in attacks by Palestinians.  They are free to travel in Israel and have therefore been allowed access to crowds of civilians.  13 year old boys on bikes, couples traveling with young children, men praying in a synagogue; all are acceptable targets for people who cultivate hate amongst their young.  Videos of toddlers in full Hamas garb beheading toy sheep which "spurt" blood are available to all viewers on YouTube.  Yet many still just don't want to press the "watch" button.

Day after day the attacks continue, but you will never hear about them on your local news because it's not news anymore.  In fact, it is all in a normal day's work for terrorists.  My family in America does not hear this news.  It is carefully filtered so as not to victimize the Israelis whom many prefer to vilify instead. 

Last week a father and his son were murdered before shabbat on their way to a celebration just four days prior to his daughter's wedding.  Yesterday the terror hit even closer; an 18 year old American boy studying at a yeshiva in my town, whose classmates I know well, was gunned down on his way to bring food to soldiers.  His hometown in Massachusetts is a community I was once a part of and love; my friends who still reside there are in shock this erev shabbat as their community prepares to bury their beloved son.  Others here in Israel are in shock over the death of a young father in the same attack.  Funerals here have become commonplace; we have become accustomed to the sounds of sobs and moans over bodies wrapped for burial.  Yet still, life goes on.  The young bride ended her seven day mourning period to announce that her wedding will take place next week with all of Israel invited.  Despair is not an option.  The Israeli people are resilient to an extraordinary degree.  It is astonishing that devotion to the Jewish values of countering evil with holiness can be and is adhered to even in the depths of the darkest times that have fallen upon our people.  That a young bride and her family can emerge from such a devastating tragedy with plans for an enormous nuptial celebration just two weeks later is unfathomable.  But my friends, THIS is the core of the Jewish psyche and is why in the face of thousands of years of genocidal threats, from the Jewish people have emerged countless technological inventions, Nobel prizewinners and a religion of peace.  The 

REAL sustainers of peace in a world that has seemingly gone mad.

Sometimes tragedy just puts everything in perspective.

This morning as I prepared a shabbat feast for my family, a glass shattered into a bowl of 2 kilos of chopped meat.  I stared at the ruined mixture and I thanked the One Above.  My greatest sacrifice this week was 2 kilos of ground beef, while two families I know of sacrificed so much more.

Baruch Dayan Haemet.  May Hashem comfort the mourners.